Marketing is all about developing a utility good or service, creating awareness for this product or service with an aim to maximize sales. Marketing is indeed a broad term, broader than many people think. It encompasses sales and its activities surpass that of advertising. Thus marketing is not the same as sales or advertising; as a matter of fact they are both sub branches under marketing. Marketing should be incorporated into almost all the departments. Staff should be trained and recruited with the orientation that the customer is most important.

The sum of marketing jobs starts from the product conceptualization stage. Do not create the product and then start to think of how to market it. Do it the other way around. Think of the market, analyze the market, try to discern the gaps or the needs existing in the market and then create a product or service to satisfy that need. The need you identified could be an existing need that is already being satisfied by other companies and products, when that is the case, think of how to solve the need better or bring it closer to the market by just a repackage and presenting yours in a unique format.

Remember that in marketing the customer or consumer is king. He owns the purchasing power and so collectively decides what sells and what does not sell. In every marketing decision you ever make always put the consumer in to thinking. It must satisfy the consumer or you should position it in the mind of the consumer so that he sees and truly believes that it would satisfy a particular need. As IT consultants are important to a computer related firm so is marketing to companies with a product or service to sell.

When talking about marketing, it is important to identify and understand what is referred to as the four marketing Ps (some now talk about the seven extended Ps). The four marketing Ps refers to Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Promotion. The various marketing activities are channeled toward the four Ps which are also known as the marketing mix. The marketing mix is your marketing strategy based on the combination of marketing tools to control your offering of the four Ps to satisfy your consumers. These four Ps can be altered to better satisfy and appeal to your target market.
Create a useful product with the right packaging to appeal to the intended market. This is probably the most important of all the Ps. The product must be right or it would fail in the long run. The product also has to be at the right price. The right price is one that guarantees you a healthy profit and is suitable to the target market. A luxury good for the wealthy should not be cheap or of average price while one that is intended for low earners should not be too expensive. Placing or distribution means you have to make the product or service easily accessible to the market needing it. The closer you can bring your good or service to the market the better. Promotion involves or is intended to keep your company and products in full view of your market constantly. You want to achieve the right product positioning so that they perceive your product just the way you want them to.

The successful marketer is one that is able to shape and continue to reshape his marketing mix strategies to better appeal to his market. It must be mentioned that the market is indeed volatile and dynamic. The degree of this volatility would in a long run depend on your industry and environment. There is no marketing mix that works 100 percent, all the time. You have to continue to seek new and better methods and strategy. Do not overly concentrate one of the Ps alone, a blend of them would prove more successful. If you do not have an effective marketing team you could get the services of a top independent consultant.